50 Years of Top 10 College Women

50 Years of Top 10 College Women

Underneath the plaid and the poufy hair were go-getters who’ve awed Glamour with their achievements.

The contest was originally called “The 10 Best Dressed College Girls,” and candidates were nominated solely by their colleges—more than 300 schools participated! Back then, Glamour chose winners for traits such as “impeccable grooming” and “shining, well-kept hair.” Yes, so retro.

Photo: Rutledge

In 1960, Glamour’s college women posed with lawmakers, including three future presidents: Nixon, Johnson and Kennedy. At the photo shoot, Janet Day, a winner from Hood College, sweet-talked JFK into speaking at her school!

Photo: Milton H. Greene

Hello, Martha Stewart. She was a 1961 winner from Barnard College. She’ll be speaking to this year’s winners at the June awards luncheon.

Photo: Frank Horvat

1968 winner Katiti Kironde of Memorial University of Newfoundland made history as the first black woman to appear on the cover of a major women’s magazine. The issue broke Glamour’s all-time high sales record! Kironde is now a fashion designer.

Photo: Frank Horvat

In 1969 Glamour shifted the focus of the contest from fashion to academics and leadership, honoring students such as Jennifer Butler of Wilson College, who started a campus business to raise funds for a new student union. We also changed the name to “Top 10 College Girls.” It finally (and rightfully) switched to “women” in 1978.

Photo: Frank Horvat

In 1970 Glamour highlighted winners’ involvement in the student movement and urged readers not to “just sit around and rap about problems” but to “do something.” Winner Anne Hutchinson of Mount Holyoke College marched in that year’s Earth Day celebration in New York City.

Photo: Otto Stupakoff

Even though the college contest wasn’t about fashion anymore, Glamour featured two winners modeling the perfect college wardrobe for 1977. Today, Wanda Urbanska (in the odd-numbered outfits) hosts Simple Living with Wanda Urbanska on PBS, and Nancy Glass (in the even-numbered outfits) is the head of her own media production company.

Photo: Joshua Greene

Winners have been inspiring each other for decades. Sheryl Lee Ralph (above left), a 1975 winner who went on to star in the original Dreamgirls on Broadway, entered the contest after seeing 1974 winner Erlene Berry’s (above right) photo and bio.

Photos: Patrice Casanova, Mike Reinhardt

1996 winner Avlana Eisenberg (above left) had a handy role model: 1975 winner Zina Schiff (above right), her mother. Today Zina is an accomplished violinist and Avlana is a conductor.

Photo: Jeffrey Aaronson, William Connors

Nothing says the eighties like Farrah hair—and women achieving more than ever before. Most winners were interested in the corporate world, with law and business school as future goals. According to our survey of past winners, 91 percent have a graduate degree or are enrolled in grad school. 20 percent of them earn more than $250,000 a year!

In 1993 winner Angela Hunt (above right) of Rice University interviewed freshly appointed Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg for Glamour. One of Ginsburg’s hopes for the next generation: for men to fully share in parenting. Today Hunt is a Dallas City Council member.

Photo: Nina Berman/SIPA Press

They may be rocking mom jeans, but these ladies went on to become some pretty amazing artists, doctors, lawyers, activists, writers, musicians and entrepreneurs. The group includes best-selling novelist Curtis Sittenfeld (bottom row, center).